The year is a success in my book. Of course I wanted to make the playoffs, but my realistic hope for year 3 was anywhere between 7 and 9 wins putting us in position to compete for a playoff spot by year 4. I admit when we lost to San Diego at the beginning of the year I was worried, but with what San Diego ended up being this year that loss looks totally different now.
Being alive in the playoff picture going into week 16 in a TOUGH conference like the AFC is definately progress.
I said before the season if we still had a chance of making the playoffs going into the last month of the season I would be happy and we did.It figures the Titans would screw us losing a game they only did that to us 40yrs anyway.I am excited about next sunday with a chance to be 8-8 I think we are progressing right on schedule.Go Texans!!
126 yards allowed (31 passing) , 3 sacks, 2 fumbles, 1 int , ZERO points what a dominating day for the Texans D bring on dem browns
FREAKIN AMAZING! I want to read what the Jax papers have to say now.....no rivalry......dirty playing.... bunch of WANKERS!!!!!!
Wow. Not only are they winning down the stretch of the season, they won this game against a quality team, on the road. And they seem to be showing real progress. Bodes well for the future.
Wait...one more thing.... what was up with all the empty seats in Jacksonville yesterday?? am I the only one who noticed that??? they were playing a very meaningful game with real playoff implications. i saw a LOT of emtpy seats. anyone else catch that??
EMPTY FEELING With possible wild card at stake, Jaguars embarrassed by Texans By VITO STELLINO , The Times-Union On the day after Christmas in virtually perfect football weather, the Jaguars and their fans both failed to show up at Alltel Stadium Sunday. The team that beat the Green Bay Packers in an emotional game on the frozen tundra in 12-degree weather a week ago was nowhere to be seen in the brisk 40-degree temperatures, though the Jaguars' playoff hopes were on the line. The Jaguars looked flat and overconfident as they were pounded by the Houston Texans, 21-0. A once-promising season that started 3-0 fell to 8-7, and the Jaguars dropped from first to fourth among the four teams chasing the final AFC wild card. Even with a victory at Oakland next week, the Jaguars would need all the contenders ahead of them to lose. There was no energy from the crowd to feed off of as it appeared that only a little more than half of the 66,277 fans who bought tickets bothered to attend after a cold, rainy morning. The Jaguars managed a franchise low 126 yards of total offense while playing without running back Fred Taylor, who had a sprained knee. Quarterback Byron Leftwich suffered a concussion in the first quarter and was finally pulled for David Garrard in the fourth quarter. "I'm shocked and disappointed that we could allow any defense to hold us down like that,'' said coach Jack Del Rio, whose team lost to the Texans for the second time this season. "It was not a good day for a bad game.'' Whether the team was distracted by the holidays or suffered a hangover after the Green Bay victory, it couldn't match the intensity of a Houston team that feels it doesn't get respect from Jaguars even though they're 4-2 against them. Running back Domanick Davis shredded the Jaguars' run defense. He ripped off runs of 44 and 38 yards, and finished with 150 yards rushing, the most the team has allowed since Del Rio became head coach last season. The Texans got a lift when they called heads for the coin toss at the start of the game and Jaguars linebacker Mike Peterson said, "I hope it's heads.'' "To me it's stupid [to say that],'' Houston tackle Seth Wand said. "I just try to ignore it. You really look stupid when you say something like that and lose.'' The coin was "heads" and the Texans took the opening kickoff and moved 65 yards for a touchdown in 10 plays. That was the only score they would need. "They talk a lot. We talk a lot. I just know we didn't want their playoff [hopes] to continue on our watch,'' said Texans quarterback David Carr. "All we want is respect.'' Jaguars players were at a loss to describe what happened. "I don't know, man. I can't really explain it,'' Peterson said. "We played like we were flat. It's hard to understand when there was so much on the line. The best thing for me to do is go home and lock myself in a room. That's how discouraging it is.'' "I'm stunned. I'm angry. I'm frustrated,'' added defensive tackle Marcus Stroud. "One, I know we can play better. Two, we should have played better. And three, I know we should have played better. That's all I'm worried about right now.'' Leftwich was allowed to return to the game despite suffering a mild concussion on the Jaguars' second series. He wound up with 35 yards passing and a 20.5 quarterback rating before being replaced in the fourth quarter. "It's very disappointing,'' Leftwich said. "It's very embarrassing to go out and play the way we played in a game of this much importance. I guess you've got to learn from it.'' The Texans went up 14-0 in the second quarter when Davis' 44-yard run set up Carr's 10-yard touchdown pass to Andre Johnson, who caught the pass over Dewayne Washington. The Texans' defense did the rest. The Jaguars had a scoring chance in the third quarter when they moved to the Houston 13, but Josh Scobee missed a 31-yard field goal. The Jaguars were 1-for-10 on third-down conversions and minus-1 in turnovers after failing to recover a pair of fumbled punts by Aaron Glenn. Former Jaguar Gary Walker said the Jaguars don't tend to give the Texans their due. "They're sitting there worried about Baltimore and Pittsburgh. They should have been worried a little bit about us," Walker said. The Jaguars remain a puzzling team that beat three playoff contenders (Buffalo, Denver and Indianapolis) and lost by a point to Pittsburgh but lost twice to the Texans and once to Tennessee. Still, Del Rio isn't ready to give up on the playoffs. "Certainly after a game like this, it's tough to really talk about it [playoffs]. I know we'll take a peek at it at some point. Until somebody tells me we can't go, I'm not conceding anything,'' Del Rio said.
The game was blacked out in J-ville. They didn't sell enough tickets by the deadline. It looked like they didn't sell enough tickets period. This is the city that tried to steal our Oilers years ago. Nice going, J-ville. I heard on the radio that in our 1st 2 years, we had 1 win by more than 10 points. This year, we had 6. How's that for improvement? Just wait until we figure out how to win the close games.
wow...i didn't know that!!! is this typical in J-Ville? have they had a hard time selling out games for a while?? i would think for a team on the verge of the playoffs, the place would be packed!
Actually it is typical in J-hole. The local media is trying to put a spin on it saying everyone was out of town for X-mas, and the usual stadium is too big and the local population only interested in Nascar, I mean too small. Great, great win I'm still smiling. Time to finish up 8-8 next week at home.
J'Ville is one sorry sports town. You have a team in the playoff mix and you can only fill up half the seats? NFL should move the Super Bowl to a real football city (Houston).
Is their a website that does strength of schedule after the season? I mean, before the season everyone says San Diego, that should be a win and Tennessee, those will be tough games. In retrospect, I wonder what kind of strength of schedule the Texans will end up with?
as of right now, our opponents combined W-L record is 151-151 (.500) I have no idea how that compares to any other team the only really bad lost we've have is to Detroit, everyone else we've lost to is going to the playoffs
I read the other day that 13 of the last 17 home games in Jacksonville didn't sell out in time to lift the blackout. Houston's own John Mcclain said they shouldn't have gotten the team to begin with which I thought was pretty funny,he also said they were going to cover some seats for Jags games next year to help them with this.Nice fans Jags that why your stadium was empty by the 3rd quarter yesterday way to be loyal.I am sure your team was able to pull the daggers out of their backs you stabbed them with.
I'm just surprised there aren't more fans showing up. That's a pretty good, young, exciting team...and that place was dead. Seriously..looked like the Dome during the lame duck years. Entire sections left open. I was shocked. My wife kept saying, "maybe it's really cold there." But it wasn't that cold.
No passion during game, or afterward By MIKE FREEMAN, Times-Union columnist Is it too much to ask for a little effort, fellas? I mean, it is only the season on the line and all. Was there a Christmas party you guys had to attend? Too much eggnog? Not enough presents? Talk to me. Tell me why you played one of the worst games in franchise history, at a time when you needed to play one of your best. Explain why a Houston team that came looking for blood, punked you out in your own backyard. Never in Jack Del Rio's most twisted dreams would he have imagined his team laying this kind of rotten egg stinker with so much at stake. Scientists are patrolling distant parts of the solar system for signs of life, but after this 21-0 embarrassment they need to turn those sensors onto Alltel Stadium and search for a pulse. When a mediocre Domanick Davis looks like Jim Brown, it is time for the team to seek therapy. This was the same Jaguars squad that just last week beat Green Bay in the Antarctic? Did the spirit of Christmas Knucklehead take over the bodies of the coaches and players? It is not that the Jaguars can't handle prosperity. It is that they treat it like it's a radioactive hot potato. The good news is that no one saw this abomination because the game was blacked out on local television, and just nine people were in the stands. "The best thing for me to do is go lock myself in a room," said linebacker Mike Peterson. "That's how discouraging it is. Go home, lock myself in a room, stay away from anybody." In the locker room afterward, I expected to see outrage. Chairs thrown and curses levied and reporters tossed out on their behinds. What I saw was calm. This is a professional group, to their credit, but every now and then doesn't Del Rio or someone else need to have one of those classic Bill Parcells tirades, where Gatorade canisters and egos get smashed against the wall? Someone, sometimes, needs to get medieval on somebody. Where was the anger? Where was the disgust? "I plead the fifth," replied defensive lineman Marcus Stroud, when asked why players weren't visibly upset. Players say that at halftime, when the Jaguars trailed by two touchdowns, the locker room was calm. After the game, again, calmness. Del Rio told the players that this was no time to panic. Actually, panic time started after Davis broke out for 44 yards in the second quarter. If it wasn't time to panic why was Stroud, the emotional leader of the team, marching up and down the Jaguars sideline, screaming, "This is our playoff game. Right here.'' Meanwhile, on the Houston bench, one of the Texans players, linebacker Jason Babin, was yelled at by one of the Houston coaches so profusely for blowing an assignment I thought the coach's head was going to explode. The game was meaningless for them but the Texans coaching staff fought with the kind of passion and viciousness you expected the Jaguars coaches to possess. "There are people in this locker room that are very angry," said safety Deon Grant. "Everything we have at stake and we play like that? But we will take care of things in house, not in public." Unfortunately, it may be too late for that, or even for an old fashioned hissy fit from the coach.
